USA: Saturday, 26 February saw the largest demonstrations yet in Madison, Wisconsin. This was the twelfth consecutive day of protest against Republican Gov. Walker's bill to effectively eliminate collective bargaining for public sector workers. An edited version of this report was published in the Socialist.

This will be presented to Labour’s local government conference on Saturday 5 March. It is online at http://www.stopcuts.net/sign.htmJoin the march and lobby: 11am, Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, Southwark, London, SE11.

No cuts: Workers, students and anti-cuts campaigners in Wales will give a clear message to the Tories and the Welsh Lib Dems, both holding their conferences in Cardiff on 5 March, that their policies are not welcome in Wales, writes Katrine Williams PCS Wales chair.

Voters in the Bellingham by-election in Lewisham, south east London, have a clear choice. They can either vote for a candidate who will push through massive cuts to local services, or they can vote for...

PRIME MINISTER Mohamed Ghannouchi announced his resignation on Sunday 27 February after three days of mass protests in Tunis and despite fierce repression by police, writes CWI reporters, (28 February).

Energy rip-off: British Gas, the privatised energy giant, recently announced a 24% surge in profits in 2010. This was largely achieved on the back of screwing its customers with higher bills. Its parent company Centrica...

The 2011 Socialist Party congress took place on 26-28 February amid the tumultuous changes taking place in Britain and the world. This 300-strong meeting heard from very new delegates and those with decades of party membership.

A SIX-foot high security fence. A special unit of 1,000 police. Late night court sittings. Sounds like the West Bank? No, welcome to the Lib Dems' spring conference in Sheffield on 11-13 March! Alistair Tice, Sheffield Socialist Party, writes.

Build a mass movement against cuts and for genuine equality for women: International Women's Day comes at a time of women's struggles against exploitation and harassment in Asia and Latin America, strikes and demonstrations against cuts in Europe and of course mass movements in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya and elsewhere...

What we think: David Cameron's announcement that private companies and charities will be able to bid to run schools, hospitals and council services was a further declaration of no-holds-barred war on the public sector...

Reports from around the UK: Thousands of people demonstrated against cuts last week, as shown in these reports in this week's issue of the Socialist from Hull, Camden, Lambeth, Haringey, Lewisham, Birmingham, Swansea and Bradford

17 MEPs and Irish Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins outside the department of finance in dublin, photo Socialist Party Ireland

Socialist Party councillor Clare Daly was elected as a TD for the first time in Dublin North with 7,513 first preference votes or 15.2% of the vote, and Joe Higgins, a TD from 1997 to 2007 and currently the Irish Socialist Party's MEP, was returned to the Dáil (parliament) representing Dublin West, gaining 8,084 votes (19%).

Press release from RMT: Transport union RMT this morning secured a major victory in the Court of Appeal over UK strike laws that will pave the way for millions to take action over cuts to jobs and services in the months ahead...

Over 1,000 marched through Manchester on Saturday 5 March, the biggest anti-cuts turnout in the city so far. Banners from local campaigns mingled with trade union and campaign banners from nearby towns like Salford and Bury

Labour councillors' conference lobbied by hundreds of angry trade unionists: "I've never been handed a petition quite like this before!" said the chair of the Local Government Association (Labour Group) as he received a petition

"The voters here in Barnsley have given me and the Lib Dems a kicking", admitted candidate Dominic Carman after coming sixth and losing his deposit in the Barnsley Central by-election on 3 March, writes Alistair Tice.

AS EXPECTED, News Corporation group, owned by the Rupert Murdoch clan, has been given the green light by Tory culture and media secretary Jeremy Hunt to fully take over TV satellite company BSkyB - the largest pay TV broadcaster in the UK...

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) - which represents academic and academic-related staff at Higher and Further Education institutions - have voted strongly in favour of industrial action in opposition to attacks on pensions, writes James Naish, UCU, personal capacity.

Defend International Workers' Day: Alongside the revolutions in the Middle East, the traditions of May Day marches and the need for a socialist alternative to cuts and poverty, there is an additional reason to support and celebrate International Workers' Day in 2011 - David Cameron wants to cancel it!, writes Bob Severn.

BANKERS AND speculators have been bailed instead of jailed. But for our class, the cruel casualties of this rotten system have been mounting for a decade, writes Wally Kennedy, Secretary, Hillingdon Against Cuts.

Welcome to Hull - capital of youth unemployment. Where 50% of young men leave school without a single A*-C grade GCSE. Where chlamydia, gonorrhoea and teenage pregnancy are at the highest levels in the...

Students at Sheffield University staged a sit-in of their student union building recently over anger at the rumours that the university could follow others in raising its tuition fees to £9,000 a year from September 2012, writes Wylie Hume, Sheffield.

Benefit attacks: Average families living in three-bedroom homes in the south east will lose £2,500 a year as a result of the government capping benefit payments to a maximum £500 a week, according to a report by the homeless charity Shelter...

FOLLOWING INITIAL reports in February that coaches bringing demonstrators to the Trades Union Congress 'March for the Alternative' on 26 March would not be allowed into central London, disability rights group Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) wrote to the TUC raising concerns about disability access, writes a Unison member.

Disgracefully Onay Kasab, a Unison member for 17 years, has been expelled from the union. Kaz explained to the Socialist that this follows a ban from office after a witch-hunt against him and three other Socialist Party members in Unison by the leadership.

Over 1,000 marched through Manchester on Saturday 5 March as banners from local campaigns mingled with trade union and campaign banners from nearby towns including Salford and Bury, writes Paul Gerrard. Also reports from Liverpool, Salford, Gateshead and Newcastle

Thousands of workers, students and anti-cuts campaigners marched through Cardiff on Saturday 5 March to tell visiting Con Dems we don't accept your cuts, photo by Paul Mattsson

There was a predictably low turnout in the referendum for more law-making powers for the Welsh Assembly, but the result shows a significant support for devolution just as the cuts from Westminster come crashing into Wales, writes Dave Reid.

Egyptians in Newcastle demonstrate in support of the Egyptian revolution, photo Newcastle Socialist Party

As the dates for elections in Tunisia and Egypt are announced, the Libyan masses, despite their herculean efforts, have not yet been able to overthrow the Gaddafi dictatorship, writes Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary.

200 trade unionists, community campaigners and service users marched in Greenwich borough, south London, against the local council's brutal cuts package, photo Lorraine Dardis

Join the 26 March TUC demo
The three main establishment parties - Tories, New Labour, Lib Dems - have so far succeeded in limiting political debate on the cuts in public services, writes Dave Nellist, Socialist Party councillor and acting chair, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.

Disgracefully, Unison has now expelled Greenwich anti-cuts activist Onay Kasab from the union despite a recent employment tribunal ruling that he had been unjustifiably banned from holding union office

Rawmarsh Community School NUT teachers in Rotherham took nine days of strike action against cuts and redundancies, winning a repreive, photo Chris Borman

Martin Powell-Davies explains what Hutton's proposals on pensions will mean for teachers and why they, and millions of other public sector workers, need to urgently ballot for strike action against this major attack. A slightly edited version of this article apeared in the Socialist.

Japan: The massive earthquake that struck north-eastern Japan on Friday 11 March and ensuing destruction caused by one of the most powerful tsunamis ever witnessed was the "worst crisis since 1945" according to Prime Minister, Naoto Kan. Reporters in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, from chinaworker.info, write.

On the day that the latest youth unemployment figures are released, John McDonnell MP and FBU general secretary Matt Wrack will be speaking at a press conference about the restaging of the Jarrow march

About 500 people protested on Friday evening (11 March) and ten times that number on Saturday's demonstration (12 March) in Sheffield outside the Lib Dem spring conference. An edited version of this report was carried in The Socialist.

On Wednesday 9 March, 1,000 people marched to save the NHS in east London. Barts and the London NHS Trust plans to cut 630 jobs. The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel was the starting point for the...

THE TUNISIAN revolution is experiencing an uneasy, fragile pause. Strikes, sit-ins, protests and blockades continue but the intensity has lessened. Promises to hold elections to a constituent assembly...

There has been a victory for the left and the rank and file in building workers' union Ucatt. After a long campaign by victimised official Mick Dooley, the Certification Officer has forced general secretary...

THE LATEST rich list produced by the Forbes magazine shows that the collective wealth of the world's 1,210 billionaires has reached a new record high of $4.5 trillion - up nearly $1 trillion on last year's total...

As council budgets are being revealed around the country, youth services are facing some of the biggest cuts. Haringey's youth services face a 75% cut, whilst in Hackney jobs will be cut by 50%, writes Suzanne Beishon.

The Guardian newspaper, which pretends to be 'progressive' and 'liberal' on social issues, disgracefully included Margaret Thatcher in its article on the "100 most inspiring women" to "celebrate" international women's day...

NHS workers in NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) were amazed to find themselves targeted in a series of carefully orchestrated leaks from the Department of Health, informing us that the government was looking at privatising 'key elements' of the Blood Service, NHSBT workers write.

Exclusive report from Japan: Take over the power and building industries!
Millions around the world watched, read and listened in horror to the reports coming from Japan on 11 March and the days that followed...

A meeting of over 100 angry residents packed into Dunchurch infants school, just outside Rugby, to hear the chair and local Liberal Democrat parish councillor declare that the only way to save the local library was to staff it using volunteers

On Friday 4 March 2011 the Court of Appeal in London handed down definitive judgements in two important industrial action cases, writes Alex Gordon, president of the RMT union. An edited version of this article appeared in the Socialist as 'Trade union victory over anti-strike laws'

Tens of thousands of health workers' jobs are being axed by NHS trusts. This is a result of billions of pounds of 'efficiency savings' initiated by the previous Labour government and carried on with...

Tory communities secretary Eric Pickles has declared war on what he calls councils' 'barmy rules and regulations' by conducting a 'review' of the 1,294 statutory duties placed on local authorities, writes By a Unison member.

The Committee for a Workers' International (CWI - the socialist international organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated) fights for an alternative to cuts, crisis and capitalism worldwide, writes Stephan Kimmerle.

After Japan's tsunami disaster -: The earthquake off Japan's east coast and the giant tsunami wave that followed on 11 March has, at the time of writing, officially killed over 8,500 people with another 13,000 people still missing...

Not content with pushing through a trebling of university fees and cutting EMA, this government is planning to cut £1 of every £8 it contributes to teaching and research in higher education in England - a total of £940 million, writes Ben Robinson.

2 April 2009: 600 march to G20: Youth Fight for Jobs was launched at a national conference in November 2008 to fight back against the way young people are being made to pay the price for the bankers' crisis...

The relentless pursuit of profit brought about the banking crisis and recession. Our world is run on that basis - the short-sighted, chaotic capitalist system that exists only to enrich the fat cats...

Each week members of the Socialist Party sell copies of the Socialist newspaper at workplaces, colleges, stations, town centres and working class estates all over England and Wales, as well as at protests and meetings...

The UN Security Council's majority decision to enact a militarily-imposed 'no-fly-zone' against Libya, while greeted with joy on the streets of Benghazi and Tobruk, is in no way intended to defend the Libyan revolution. Updated 23 March 2011.

Dave Nellist at the TUSC Launch rally, London March 2010, photo Alison Hill

On 5 May millions of voters will pass judgement on the Con-Dem coalition in elections to local councils, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, writes Councillor Dave Nellist, Acting chair, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.

Nobody, apart from the super-rich, can hope to avoid the impact of the government's brutal attacks. HANNAH SELL, Socialist Party deputy general secretary, sets out a strategy for defeating the Con-Dems' cuts.

In the build-up to the UCU's national day of strike action on Thursday 24 March, there was a rolling programme of strikes in different regions. Here are reports from Tuesday's strikes in Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and London

The chancellor of the exchequer's budget speech yesterday came as no relief at all to the many millions of people who are struggling to make ends meet and who are reeling under the onslaught of the government's austerity measures

Alongside the cuts the Tories are planning mass privatisation. Part of the reason for the cuts in public sector workers pay, conditions and pensions is to make buying up public services a more attractive...

United we are strong, divided we will be defeated. The government knows that and is desperate to divide us - public sector from private sector, old from young, benefit claimants from everyone else.....

Just some of the many services facing major cuts are: adult education, benefits for the disabled, bus services, Citizen's Advice Bureau, children's services, coastguard services, domestic violence services, English for Speakers of Other Languages, EMA, fire services, flood defences, help for rough...

Socialist Party member and former councillor Ian Page received 12% of the vote in yesterday's byelection in the Bellingham ward in Lewisham, south London. An edited version of this article appeared in The Socialist.

Up to 200 Visteon pensioners demonstrated outside parliament on Tuesday 29 March as Ford executives met MPs. Their pensions, which were originally set up by Ford, are being reduced by between 14% and 50%

New housing benefit claims from Friday 1st April will only be eligible for a reduced rate; existing tenants will see their claims reduce at some point up to nine months after the anniversary of their claim date...

PCS DWP group vice president 70% of Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union members have voted 'yes' to support strike action to improve working conditions in Jobcentre Plus contact centres across the UK, writes Katrine Williams.

For school and college students, education minister Michael Gove's latest announcement of a scheme to 'replace' the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) will have left a bitter taste, writes Claire Laker-Mansfield Socialist Students national organiser.

Pay squeeze Average take home pay is lower today than in 2004, according the BBC's Panorama TV programme - The Big Squeeze - shown on 28 March. It reckoned that the average worker takes home £1,088 a year less than two years ago after adjusted for inflation.

Seventeen MPs have signed an early day motion backing the Youth Fight for Jobs Jarrow march in October on the 75th anniversary of the original Jarrow unemployed march, demanding decent jobs and a free education for youth, writes Paul Callanan Youth Fight for Jobs, national organiser.

The Socialist Party participated very successfully in the TUC demonstration on 26 March. There were 50 Socialist Party campaign stalls where thousands of people signed our petitions for a 24-hour public sector general strike.

The Con-Dems are intent on attacking us on every front. The cuts to the health service will cost lives. Despite promising to 'ring-fence' the NHS, billions of pounds of 'efficiency savings' initiated...

What we think:
* No to imperialist intervention
* Build an independent force of workers and the poor
The Libyan revolution is at a crossroads. But the turning point is not simply the rapidly shifting battle around the Gulf of Sirte.

Saltend construction workers protest against being locked out by Redhall, photo Yorkshire Socialist Party

In a magnificent show of determination and solidarity, at 6am on Monday 28 March, 800 construction workers and other trade unionists assembled outside the gates of the Saltend con­struction site near Hull...

Interview with POA assistant secretary, Joe Simpson The Con-Dems have sold Birmingham prison to private security firm G4S. This is the first existing public sector prison to be contracted out. An edited version of this article appeared in The Socialist.